Penelope Lively’s most admired novelist: William Golding

In a recent interview with the Guardian, Booker-Prize-winning author Penelope Lively cites William Golding as her ‘most admired novelist’. Lively has just written a new collection of short stories, The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories, and has published more than 30 books in an impressive career which began with her brilliant children’s book The Ghost of Thomas Kempein 1972.

Lively also wrote the foreword to the new edition of Golding’s The Pyramid, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2017.